Month (or so) in Review

It has been absolutely nuts around here of late. In May, my work was severely hampered when my plant hosted a Plant Manager's meeting for a week. I was involved in some of the meetings and tours and after-hours events which prevented me from getting a whole lot done. Then we had the HSE folks conference in West Virginia, which I blabbed about missing the plane in another blog, followed by a week of vacation. I don't want to come off as whiny, but it looks like June is going to be full of work, when I should be enjoying the later evenings as they will become shorter around the summer solstice.

Did I mention that on our way to Florida, we put an offer on a house? We were looking to lower our mortgage by getting an older house and doing some things like puttting in a new kitchen. We had the inspection on Wednesday, and after that, I got a better look at the house. We decided to opt out of the house and were lucky when another offer on the house came in. So we're staying put, doing a couple of little projects here this summer that are minor in nature and enjoying it.

Speaking of enjoyment:

I finally found some Gumballhead Wheat, made by the fabulous Three Floyd's in Munster, Indiana. It was very good. I wouldn't say that it was my favorite beer, but it's definitely my favorite smelling beer. Yeah, I know, what are you going to do, walk around with a glass full, smelling it all day? Well, I sort of did, until it was gone.

Also, I finally fixed "The Creeper." So you can either get it here or in the more appropriate blog.

Have a good one. I think we're going to Chicago for the day.

Seven Inches You Wish You Had - "Sometimes It's Pancakes For Days"

Since I've been moving the records over to the digital format, I thought it would be neat to share some of the old treasures I've been uncovering, specifically, the seven inch, 45 r.p.m. records that aren't available anywhere BUT on the original 7" they came out on.

The first one of these is Minneapolis' own RUN WESTY RUN. In the early 90's, these guys were Kings of the Twin Cities' rock scene. We loved 'em in Ames, as well. Buncha skinny guys with big noses, bringing all the goodness back from 70's rock and no one really knowing where to pigeonhole them. Are they punk? Are they alternative? How about just straightforward rock? Of course, the same thing happened to the Replacements.

This seven inch record was released on a dark, blood red vinyl with an orange label. This one was released by Big Money Inc. The band had two earlier albums on SST and their masterpiece, "Green Cat Island" was released on Twin Tone records. The cover is probably one of the most sweetest seven-inch record covers ever. I have no idea why they called this "Plowed Into God." Those words don't appear in either song on this record.


This fine outing consists of 2 songs: "Flappers", and the feelgood hit of the summer of 1992, "The Creeper". "Flappers" reminds me of Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak." The lyrics made my friend Brian wonder if the band was on heroin. When you read "Yeah, I'm jonesin' to channel 9, Sometimes it's pancakes for days and selling everything you own" you think maybe he had something there.

"The Creeper" could have easily come off of The Stooges first two albums. More likely "Funhouse" since there's a sax on it. This tune appears to be about jazz greats. We actually got to meet these guys a few times when they came to Ames. The guys in Funky Thermos were especially big fans. They would act all pretentious and say they weren't really interested in rock and roll. They were more interested in Thelonius Monk. Whatever.

I totally recommend this seven inch as well as the "Green Cat Island" release. The only good song on the SST releases is "Mop It Up." The rest of those songs are just too weird for me.